that famous and strong wall, six hundred leguas long, which separated China from Tartaria.  The events of this war and the state of the kingdom of China will be set forth in a petition, or memorial, which the mandarins presented to their king.  Our fathers of Macan sent it to us, saying that the Christians of Paquin had sent it to them.  The fathers put it into Portuguese; translated into Spanish, it reads as follows: 

Memorial which the mandarins of Paquin sent to the king of China in the year 1618, when the Tartars invaded that kingdom.

This year, 1618, in the sixth moon, which is the month of August, the president of the council of war presented to the king a memorial for the defense [of the kingdom] against the Tartars, who entered by the north walls.  He humbly begs of you, my king, that you give attention to this matter, and quickly open your treasuries in support of this war to raise soldiers and to collect supplies.  The facts of the situation are, as I just now heard from the mandarins who are in the province of the north walls, that the Tartars assembled with the determination to seize this country of China.  They say that on the day selected for battle they entered through the walls and captured some people, whom they sacrificed and burned at two in the morning before the pitched battle; and, while they were burning the sacrifice, great bombs and ingenious fireworks were discharged.  They raised flags on the hills and proclaimed their own king as king of Paquin.  Of soldiers who bear arms and other people there are thousands of thousands—­they are indeed, innumerable.  Each soldier carries several weapons.  They entered by force of arms through the walls called Humbre.  The mandarins entrusted with the defense of this part of the walls collected two armies [companias], ninety-six captains, and three hundred thousand men, and came to blows eleven times.  In the first encounter our captain-general and thirty-seven captains ordinary were killed.  Our captain called Chun entered valiantly on horseback into the ranks of the Tartars, killed five of them, and was then himself killed and mutilated on the spot.  Countless numbers of our men died in these actions; some thousands were captured; and, in retreating from the battle, amid the confusion and tumult, more than a thousand more were killed.  The victorious Tartar raised his flag aloft and his men cried out, “Our king of Paquin comes to take possession of Great China, which dared to resist him.”  The Tartars, following up the victory, killed in various encounters more than six hundred captains and soldiers of repute.  The inhabitants of the cities and towns deserted them and fled to the forests with their women and children.  On the same day the Tartars took three cities.